Category: Classic Beauty

“Aw Kim… another post about Sophia Loren?”

WHO SAID THAT?

Oh… nobody said that?  Not surprising.

Let’s move away from the silent era to more modern times, e.g. Sophia Loren (who needs no introduction to Longtime Readers).  This week, we’ll look at some B/W pics, and next week, color.  Here we go:

A lot of the above can be right-clicked to embiggen… if you absolutely have to.

As the saying goes:  “I would lick the beach sand off her feet, and die a happy man.”  (I don’t know who said that;  it might have been me.)

In a life cut tragically short at age 24, Martha Mansfield nevertheless stood out by virtue of her self-belief and ambition, resulting in a stage career, a Ziegfeld Girl, and appearances in several silent movies.  Oh, and her beauty.

Incidentally, if you read her bio at the above link, does her death not strike you as… suspicious?

In the 1930s, Dorothy Flood was considered one of the most beautiful faces in show business — but hey, don’t take my word for it;  judge for yourselves:

Then, after having spent her teenage years on Broadway, appearing in shows with established stars like Ruby Keeler, she became a Ziegfeld Girl — and met Ziegfeld’s “house” photographer, Alfred Cheney Johnson… and the rest became history.

Johnson is said to have remarked that Dorothy Flood was the most beautiful woman he’d ever photographed — and considering who and how many women he’d snapped, that’s no small compliment.

Gorgeous.

One of those 1940s babes, I think Ramsay Ames had an amazing ability to look like other stars of the day such as Rosalind Russell, Lana Turner* and so on.  Or maybe they just all looked alike according to the casting standards of the day.  Whatever, Ramsay’s gorgeous.

Classic, indeed.

She was once described as having “a face like Grace Kelly and a body like Marilyn Monroe”.  I wouldn’t go as far as that, but Rosemarie Bowe was something else.

Unusually for Hollywood, she was married to only one man — Robert Stack — and she pretty much quit acting when the two kids came along, only going back once they had grown.

Lovely.